Of all the cookbooks I’ve read, Cedar and Salt (TouchWood Editions, 2019) strikes at the very heart of my food memories. From travelling the Old Island Highway, a behemoth of an oyster midden as reliable as any “Welcome to Fanny Bay” road sign, to the juicy reward that comes after scrabbling through brambles for blackberries in late summer, Vancouver Island has its own unique sensory signature. A love letter to this beautiful slice of British Columbia, islanders DL Acken and Emily Lycopolus make this abundantly clear in their lush and eloquent book.

Cedar and Salt by DL Acken and Emily Lycopolus.TouchWood Editions

Joining other recently published cookbooks, such as Jeremy Charles’s Wildness: An Ode to Newfoundland and Labrador, and Karlynn Johnston’s The Prairie Table, Cedar and Salt is among a new breed of regional Canadian explorations. Inextricable from its location, it’s a snapshot of a specific food culture with expansive appeal all the same. These books tell a story — of food, of people, of landscape, of culture — and even if you’ve never set foot on the ground they’re rooted in, you can feel and taste what it’s like to be there.

“I think it’s much more important and interesting and relevant to look really regionally at what all of the different regions of Canada have to offer,” says Acken, a photographer and food writer who divides her time between Salt Spring Island and London, U.K. “We have such a diverse country, and it’s so exciting to dig in and find out what is in your own backyard.”

Acken and Lycopolus — who have collaborated on six other books — were heartened by regional American works, especially Ronni Lundy’s Victuals, which focuses on Appalachian foodways. In Cedar and Salt, they share inviting recipes that can be easily adapted elsewhere in the country, interspersed with stories about the Vancouver Island artisans, farmers and producers behind the ingredients they cook with on a daily basis.

“(We were inspired by) seeing all of these regional books coming out and realizing that there wasn’t anything like it on Vancouver Island, yet we have such unique cuisine, and the availability and diversity of ingredients here is just incredible,” says Victoria-based Lycopolus, who is a recipe developer and olive oil sommelier.

“I hope that this will make people look in their own backyards,” says DL Acken.DL Acken

Seafood is likely the first thing that comes to many people’s minds when they consider the food of Vancouver Island, but its landscapes — highlighted in Cedar and Salt with chapters devoted to forest, farm, field and sea — provide a wide variety of foods not typically associated with a Canadian cuisine. Kiwis hang on vines and satsuma oranges on trees, water buffalo are milked for yogurt, local tea is steeped and oil is pressed in the country’s only olive grove.

The choice to structure the book by geography coupled with Acken’s atmospheric photography gives the reader an even deeper sense of place, underscoring not just the plentiful wild foods of the island’s bodies of water and forests, but agricultural contributions as well. “I hope that this will make people look in their own backyards, even if they are in the Prairies or the Maritimes, or across the U.S.; whatever country this book happens to reach,” says Acken. “I hope that we brought that message back that really, all we need is right around us. We can make really exciting food with the stuff that’s right here.”

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the accompanying recipes from Cedar and Salt celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Apples form a thread, in savoury starters — aged cheddar, smoked ham and apple galette, and apple brandy-spiked chicken liver pâté (both of which pair well with the rosehip and crabapple jelly) — and a welcoming spiced apple hot toddy that fills the air with its warm aroma. “We always celebrate the bounty of the season with friends,” says Lycopolus of the holiday, adding that she hopes readers take away a sense of plenty from the book. “There’s so much that we have in Canada when it comes to food. Exploring that — playing with our ingredients and creating with them — is where food traditions begin.”